Communication advancements in modern times have historically been driven by research and development for military purposes. The technology used in cell phones and cellular networks was first developed during World War II to enable the military to communicate on the battlefield. The Internet was developed during the cold war to allow the military to interconnect its computers and exchange information throughout the world. The ability to communicate and share information has been as important to the military's ability to fight as modern weapon development. Increasingly, military communications have come to rely on wireless technologies to accommodate the highly mobile nature of the battlefield environment.
With the end of the cold war, the military has evolved to become lighter and faster moving, with ever-increasing demands imposed on its communications equipment. The military wants more and more information available to commanders, and even to the individual soldier in the field. Modern conflicts and disasters require the military to quickly respond to remote corners of the world with little advance warning. However, much of the past wireless communications infrastructure developed for the military is reliant on a fixed infrastructure, and it may be difficult, if not impossible, to set up an adequate number of cell towers and radio antennas on a rapidly advancing battlefield. Moreover, careful advance mission planning has been required in order to achieve the necessary communications capabilities that rely on non-fixed equipment. With the explosion in broadband communications needs, the problem of managing the physical layer of operating bands, data rates, transmitter power levels, etc., so as to maintain viable communications networks, has increasingly demanded the development of autonomous management technologies.
To that end, research is being done to develop an autonomous, mobile, wireless communications infrastructure which can enable a highly mobile force to communicate while on the move, with a minimum of mission planning. Rather than relying on detailed pre-mission planning, dedicated antennas and cellular stations, the mobile infrastructure can use smaller, portable, autonomously managed nodes. Nodes can be used as repeaters for other nodes, at the discretion of the autonomous manager. New nodes can be added as the mobile force advances, and the network adjusted to compensate for planned or unplanned losses of network nodes. Various ground and air vehicles can become nodes that contribute to the network communications infrastructure. The large number of nodes in a moving force can increase the robustness of the communications infrastructure in an environment fraught with hazards. As nodes move in and out of range or are destroyed in fighting, other available nodes can be used to repair or replace lost communications links. The development of intelligent, autonomous managers for maintaining functional communications networks in the face of these unpredictable events is thus desirable.
Light weight, robust, portable networks can enable a nimble fighting force to effectively communicate with each other and with commanders located outside the battlefield. Large amounts of information can be transmitted and shared, including real time, high definition video. The increase in information can serve as a force magnifier, enabling even faster and lighter forces to be assembled in any corner of the world. However, managing and organizing this communications network in the face of fast-paced and unpredictable evolution of the battlefield environment can quickly overwhelm human technicians.
Controlling a mobile network made up of a number of moving nodes can be a substantial challenge. In providing communications paths through a changing multi-node network, a large number of variables can make the task challenging. Computers may be used to sort through thousands of possible variables in path length, power, frequency, location, number of hops between nodes, physical blockades, and other factors in order to complete a single link. Managing and balancing the needs of dozens or hundreds of possibly interfering and competing links on a large battlefield can seem overwhelming, even using today's modern computing capabilities.